Thanks for the reply - sort of helpful, but...
We don't use a proxy here, so I'm not sure that advice applies - do I need
to provide our name server addresses to curl?
I'm also fairly certain cookies aren't involved; data requests are a long
string the script puts into the address bar;
_https://messaging.covisint.com/invoke/HTTPConnector.Mailbox/get?action=msg&
id=M2067114{ENTER}
the resulting page(s) that is(are) loaded is(are) then saved as a text file
for processing.
The first data request requires a pause for a pop-up username password input
box; subsequent requests don't require anything special.
Hmm! Did finally get sonmething! See attached text file!
The connection is https style...do I need something extra for this type of
call?

Thanks again

-----Original Message-----
From: Daniel Stenberg [mailto:daniel_at_haxx.se]
Sent: Monday, November 14, 2005 5:24 PM
To: the curl tool
Subject: Re: Newbie requests help

On Mon, 14 Nov 2005, mgerics wrote:

(disclaimer: I'm so snowed-in on curl so I'm probably one of the worst guys
to
offer advice to newbies...)

> Have an operation that gets data via HTTP.
> 1st data access requires entry of username and password.

It is very important you details exactly how this "requires entry of
username
and password". It can be done in many ways and the particular way your URL
uses of course decide how it is done with curl.

> Subsequent accessses simply require the URL.

It sounds as if you'd need to use cookies received from step 1 to
successfully
manage step 2. Things like this are usually managed with cookies.

> I am fairly certain curl will do this for me. dl'ed some archives and
tried
> curl <my url>, where <my url> is any of several urls that work fine with
> ping. Apparently mising something, as I always get back 'curl: (6) Could
not
> resolve host: <my url>; Host not found'

That makes it sound as if you should be using a proxy or something. curl
doesn't detect or use that automatically, but you need to tell it to.

> Could someone please repond to this email with exactly what files are
needed
> and where and how to install them - I am not familiar with 'make', etc, so

> prefer a pre-compiled binary.

You already have curl, that should be enough. The rest is about using curl
correctly. Possibly from a scripting language or similar, but that is your
pick.

> Any helpful hints and suggestions that do not refer to lake jumping or
> acroabatic kite control will be appreciated.

I hope I managed at least partly! ;-)

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